Cloud of Witnesses Radio
Audio drama retellings of the stories of the Christian Saints, Panel Discussions, Cast Commentary, Reaction Videos, Screwtape Returns, and more!
Cloud of Witnesses Radio
Virgin Mary: the Ladder of God? | Calling Down Grace in Our Lives | Fr John Reimann | TIO007 CWP078
Father John's sermon reveals how, strangely enough, we are all called to be Ladders of God. We see in the life of the Theotokos, the Virgin Mary, the prime example of this. The Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church see in her life a fulfilment of Jacob's Vision: the Divine Ladder from which Heaven is connected to Earth through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
What if your daily actions could transform you into a living tabernacle for Christ? This episode invites you to explore how we, as Orthodox Christians, can become gates, ladders, and vessels of God's presence, much like the Holy Lady Theotokos. We'll draw a unique comparison to the game Chutes and Ladders to illustrate our spiritual journey, emphasizing our role in the grand plan for universal salvation. The discussion highlights the profound significance of sharing in God's energy and power, with special attention to the Nativity and Dormition of Theotokos, and how these events inspire our path to personal sanctification. By striving for holiness, we prepare ourselves to present Christ to the world, thus participating in His saving work.
Imagine making Christ present in every act, every word, despite our human imperfections. This episode underscores how the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist empower us to be conduits of divine grace, making a more profound impact on others than any physical church could. You’ll learn practical steps to embody Christ daily, guided by the intercessions of the Holy Lady Theotokos and all the saints. As we live out our faith, we become living tabernacles, carrying Jesus into the world and sharing His love with all those we encounter. Listen in for an insightful and inspiring discussion on how to truly embody Christ's presence in your everyday life.
**********
Contact this episode's sponsor!: 🕯️
LuciaCandleCompany.Etsy.com
For a 10% discount, mention CLOUD10 at the checkout!
************
Please prayerfully consider supporting Cloud of Witnesses Radio:
https://www.patreon.com/cloudofwitnessesradio
************
If you're interested in Orthodoxy, visit a parish near you and visit antiochian.org
Or visit our home parish at Saint Anthony Antiochian Orthodox Church, San Diego, CA!
God bless you!
Thank you for journeying w/ the Saints with us!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, our God is one. First and foremost, I have to ask a very important question of you how many of you have ever played Chutes and Ladders? Put your hand up. Have you ever played Chutes and Ladders? Oh, wow, a lot of you know that game. I had never heard that game.
Speaker 1:Coming from Idaho, I'm rather deprived Some people would say depraved, but more like deprived of knowledge of certain things like that. And it wasn't until we had our daughters that chutes and ladders came into our home and we had a lot of fun with that. But, brothers and sisters, as Orthodox Christians, we are not called to play chutes and ladders. We are called to be gates, ladders and living tabernacles of our living God. And this feast enables us to do that Because our Holy Lady Theotokos, our mother, she is our spiritual mother. Brothers and sisters, yes, we have our physical mothers and we must honor and love them. But, brothers and sisters, we are called to follow her example of being the gates and the ladders and the living tabernacles of our Lord God to the world around us.
Speaker 1:I was so utterly amazed by something I read just this last year. Now I've been Orthodox Christian 35 plus years. I've been off to seminary for three years, ok, but I'm ever learning more and new things about my faith. I'm ever learning more and new things about my faith and one of the things that was said in writing that I finally read in one of our theologians. It said that our Lord mystically, our God has a plan of involving us in the salvation of the universe. Do you understand that? That is phenomenal. We don't have a God who, in his glory and power, seeks to keep it all to himself, but he seeks to share it. That we would share it? Okay, this is important. This is vital for us to understand and know, because when God is these things and does these things, there's some things we'll never be able to share. We will never share in the essence of God. We'll never know that he is utterly beyond us in his essence, but in his energy, in his power, he seeks to share that with us. That we would share it with the rest of the world. Ultimately, why? For the salvation of the world. And we can do that by becoming and following the Virgin Mary's examples of being a very gate of Christ to people, of being on a very ladder of Christ to bring our Lord to him, being the living tabernacle that's coming into the world for its salvation. Now we have to understand, when we come into this church of St Anthony's it's not true in all Orthodox churches, but we did this on purpose Dmitri Skolnick, who was our iconographer, when we sat down and we did a lot of planning on this there's a lot of work you don't see.
Speaker 1:You can appreciate, but there's a lot of work that goes into this. When you come into this church, the first icon you see is this feast today, the nativity of Theotokos. Do you understand? At the beginning of the church year, that's the first main feast we celebrate at the beginning of church year is the Nativity of Theotokos. And when you leave the church to go home, the last icon you see as you go out is the Dormition of Theotokos. That's the last feast of the year, the church year. So there's a significance and connection between those.
Speaker 1:We just finished with the celebration, last church year, of the Dormition, the falling asleep, of the Virgin Mary and, as I've told you before, we want to be people of the parousia, people of the second coming, that we live each day and each moment with the constant expectation of Christ coming to be with us or are going to be with Christ. And if we live in that anticipation, brothers and sisters, that means we're going to strive to bring ourselves into conformity with Christ. We're seeking to purify our life, what we do with our bodies, what we say with our mouth, what we think with our mind and what we feel with our heart, that we can be totally sanctified. That's the goal that we're working on, and the reason why God wants to do that to us, brothers and sisters, is because that helps us be the holy gate to present Christ to people, helps us to be the holy ladder to bring Christ into their life, to be the living tabernacle of the living God. All these things God has given to us is for a purpose, and the purpose is very practical. It's not, yes, deeply historical. It's not, yes, also symbolic, but it's also very practical because he wants us to be these things to the world around them. He desires to use us in the salvation of his cosmos. Isn't that amazing? God doesn't seek to do this to us. He seeks to do his salvation with us, in us, through us. But that can only be if we seek, brothers and sisters, to purify ourselves. We can be very much instead of the gates that we're called to be, instead of the ladders, instead of the tabernacles. We can be very much moats and walls and prisons instead by how we interact with the people around us, and it really starts at home. It's hard, right, it's not an easy thing, but God gives us all the power in the universe to do it. We have to just remember that he's here because she said yes.
Speaker 1:The feast epistle and gospel, especially the gospel for today. We heard also part of that in the morning gospel, because the morning gospel instead of the resurrection one. Instead, we were able to hear from the gospel of Luke and the gospel of Luke. What is being called upon there is the Magnificat and where the Virgin Mary, having said yes to the Lord, comes and is able to Gabriel, to the Annunciation, goes to Elizabeth, who's already pregnant with John the Baptist. You know the story. And when Mary greets Elizabeth, john the Baptist, recognizing the voice of his God as an infant still in the womb, ends up what, leaping for joy the good news. Even at that moment, mary is a gate and a ladder and a tabernacle In a very special way, to not only Elizabeth but even the unborn that's in Elizabeth's womb. Imagine that Phenomenal that's in Elizabeth's womb. Imagine that Phenomenal.
Speaker 1:And so, in that beautiful Magnificat, what does Mary end up saying? She said let it be done to me according to thy word, now that the gospel that is chosen today, the gospel that's chosen today, the gospel that's chosen today, is one that comes out of St John, who's talking about, of course, our Lord descending from heaven. He's able to descend from heaven because of her saying yes. That's why it's appropriate we celebrate her nativity, because God seeks to celebrate, by the way, our own nativity and our own going home to be with him. We celebrate that in the life of the church of all the saints.
Speaker 1:But in the gospel that would normally be chosen for this day if it were not on a Sunday, we read the story about Mary and Martha right, in which Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus because she has God in the flesh there and she's attentive. That's what you're doing here right now, by the way. Thank you for being a good, faithful Mary, but Martha needing to do the work that needs to be done to take care of the hospitality, all right, you can't have people come to your house and not serve them food right. It's not done in the cultures that we come from In the Middle East. It's just not known. You have to give them food. And so she's running around and she's frustrated with her sister because her sister's sitting before Mary, and so that's part of the scriptures. That's there and in the teaching that is given at that house.
Speaker 1:Jesus ends up saying to Martha when she's complaining you know that it's good that she is doing what she's doing here to be able to sit, because there's not going to be a long period of time that Jesus and the flesh is going to be with them, and so it's good that she's attentive at that time. There's time when we have to work to do the other things. There's times we need to be attentive to God. We have to do that balance in our life. It's not easy. We can't do only one or the other, we have to do both. And the struggles, with God's help, as to how to figure out to do that, because it will shift according to what we have to do, according to where our family is at the time, where we are at the time. But what happens is this remarkable saying that happens.
Speaker 1:Somebody in the group ends up saying to Jesus, saying blessed is the womb that bore you and blessed are the breasts that you nursed from. And Jesus says something very important. He says, rather blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Well, guess what? That's exactly what the Virgin Mary did at the Annunciation. She said let it be unto me, according to thy word.
Speaker 1:And because of her faithfulness, because of her seeking to bring her life into conformity with God, she became the living tabernacle. She became for us, as we saw in the Old Testament readings last night, in the prophecy of Ezekiel, she becomes the gate through which Christ comes, the gate that once opened, is shut and no other man will enter therein, which is a reference to her ever virginity, that she was a virgin before, during, after giving birth. This is the teaching and understanding of the church and this is not to make her a deity in her own right, but actually to underscore the virgin birth of our Lord. And from that sense, she has become the gate for us, as we see in the book of Genesis. From the Old Testament reading last night, we see that, as Jacob was there and he has that dream of the ladder and what's, the angels descending and ascending and he says this is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven, and we understand that the Virgin Mary is that ladder for us.
Speaker 1:But do you understand, brothers and sisters, even more important for us in the celebration of this feast is God makes that possible through her in order that we would follow that example and be that gate for others, that we would be that ladder for others, that we would be that living tabernacle. And so what we do with our bodies is important. What we say with our mouth to our friends, our families, our children, our parents is important. Okay, what we think in our minds is important, what we feel in our hearts. Our Lord gives us the ability, and it's important what we feel in our hearts. Our Lord gives us the ability, and the church is so empowering us by the sacraments and all the services and all the prayers and all the spiritual helps to enable us to do that, brothers and sisters, because we live in a world that desperately needs God.
Speaker 1:Now there's a huge revival for us as Orthodox that's taking place right now, because I believe God is finally saying all right, if you're not going to do it, I'm going to do it myself and it's bringing people in, pulling them right and left. So we have to do the work as church for whatever is happening and whatever is coming, and it's good that this community is here. It's good that this community has been faithful to do what they've been doing. This community was set in place to do exactly what we're doing right now and we're thankful to God for that. But, brothers and sisters, let's also make it personal. Each and every one of us are called to be purified, to become that gate, to become that ladder, to become that holy temple, because not everyone's going to come here into this church Now. A lot of people are. I look out and I still see new faces, people I've never met before. Welcome, it's good to have you here at St Anthony's and we're learning, seeing and meeting new people all the time. Thanks be to God.
Speaker 1:But what's so important part of the reason is people online, of course, are talking about that, but also the other thing, the biggest thing that's also helpful, is that some of you have already been that gate and that ladder and that tabernacle. And can I tell you something? That doesn't mean that you have to be the cleanest ladder possible, doesn't mean you have to be the perfect gate. There's going to be some rusty, broken hinges there. Both of my gates at home are in desperate need of replacing okay, but they still work and they serve a purpose.
Speaker 1:And even if we're not perfect yet, even if we're not completely purified, god can still use us that when we go out into the world we take Jesus into the world.
Speaker 1:He is here, enthroned in the altar, in the holy tabernacle, which only the priests and the deacons, if necessary, or if there's an emergency fire, we give the blessing. People to grab it, but generally that's only touched by the clergy. People to grab it, but generally that's only touched by the clergy. And yet, do you understand, you are more valued to God as the living tabernacle than even this beautiful little sanctuary on the altar. And people will only experience this sanctuary as they come into this church. But when you, being filled with the Holy Spirit, receiving the body and blood of Christ, go out into the world by your actions, by your deeds, by your words, you will be that gate, you will be that ladder, you will be that tabernacle to bring Christ to them. And they desperately need to see and experience him in us. May we do that through the intercessions of our Holy Lady Theotokos and of all the saints, blessed feast.
Speaker 2:Hi, this is Nick from Cloud of Witnesses and we're super excited to announce our collaboration with Lucia Candle Company. From devotional candles to baptismal and wedding candles, Lucia Candle Company has high-quality products to bless any occasion. Add a touch of inspiration to your icon corner with our 100% natural white beeswax candles complete with icons and quotes from beloved saints, new and old. Check out our online shop at luciacandlecompanyetsycom. Link is in the description below. Thank you, and God bless you.